


Ice Cream

by holdouttrout



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-03
Updated: 2008-05-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 20:24:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holdouttrout/pseuds/holdouttrout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a long, boring mission. Set sometime after "Ark of Truth," but there are no spoilers. A small, shippy moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Cream

It was an exhausting mission--not dangerous, particularly, but slow and tedious, and Daniel thought that maybe they'd spent a few days weighing a bit more than they did on Earth. Sam hadn't been there to confirm, but everyone had looked just a little extra grim at the end of it.

Vala had fared the worst, though Daniel knew Cam hadn't noticed, hadn't changed their order in the infirmary, leaving Vala's exam last and her shower later.

Daniel was sitting on the bench outside the locker room when she finally came out, dressed but not put together, and eyes only losing a little bit of weight in her surprise when she saw him there.

He couldn't deny that he liked her best when she was just a little too tired to tease him, a little too tired to hide her first, honest reactions. It wasn't something he was proud of.

He stood, calculated a touch on her shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go eat."

His reward was a brief, honest smile, and then a brighter, falser one as she hooked her arm through his.

He took her off-base, to the kind of hole-in-the-wall place he liked, rickety tables holding up decent and underpriced food--the kind of place where you had a favorite dish and stuck to it. The lighting was low, though not in the swanky way of the other restaurant they'd gone to, and Vala liked it, he could tell. She kept looking at the other people there--families, couples, friends. An astonishing variety of people hitting the early dinner times before the people on dates would take over.

They didn't order any wine, just enjoyed their dinner without a lot of talking, Daniel's normal inclination to fill the silence curiously absent, and left without ordering dessert.

It was still early as they drove back toward the base. Vala had her feet up on the dashboard again, but Daniel was resolutely ignoring it.

"Ice cream," she said suddenly. "I want ice cream." She pointed to the store just a block away.

Her imperious tone rankled, and she must have seen, because wheedled out the next request. "Please can we get ice cream?"

Daniel rolled his eyes but turned into the parking lot. Vala grinned and dragged him into the store, trailing happiness like her scarf, stopping only when they were in front of the freezer, the pints lined up in ragged little rows.

Vala leaned forward and examined the descriptions on each one, going back several times to look at the flavor Daniel knew she'd pick--a rich chocolate one, of course. Finally, she reached in and brought it out.

"Aren't you going to pick one?"

Daniel shrugged. "I'll just eat some of yours."

Vala frowned and clutched at the pint. "Oh, no. You get your own."

Daniel sighed but grabbed a raspberry sherbet. Vala looked at it suspiciously. "That's not ice cream."

"Close enough," Daniel said. "And I like it."

Vala sighed.

When they left the store, it was just getting dark. It was a warm night, though, so Daniel followed Vala without protest to a grassy area with tables. They sat on top of one and used flimsy plastic spoons to dig out their treat.

Daniel looked up at the clear sky as raspberry melted in his mouth and Vala's side brushed against his, and thought that this wasn't half bad. There were a lot worse things than making someone happy with ice cream and time away from blank walls.

"You looked tired today," Vala noted, and Daniel started out of his reverie.

"So did you," he said before he thought about it.

She grimaced. "Beastly planet. Dull, gray, and nobody of interest. I would have given _anything_ for a group of rogue Jaffa."

He stared at her. "You _like_ the missions where we're running for our lives?"

Vala mumbled her agreement around another spoon of ice cream, swallowed. "Don't you?"

Daniel was appalled to think she was right, and then he realized that it was a necessary part of being able to do their jobs.

"Huh," he said, just as Vala sneaked her spoon into his carton and grabbed a bit of the raspberry.

Vala's eyes closed and she hummed in pleasure, swinging her feet between the bench and the table.

"I thought you said I should get my own," he said, eyeing her ice cream, which was just out of reach.

"Mmmhmm," she agreed, keeping the ice cream far away from him while taking another spoonful, her eyes still closed. "Mine's better." Her head was tilted back, leaving her throat exposed, her hair in those ridiculous pigtails that somehow didn't look so ridiculous to him anymore.

He didn't mean to do it, didn't remember thinking he should lean over, kiss her. But he did, and she didn't exactly seem too surprised, kissing him back after just a quick inhale. She tasted sweet, and Daniel didn't think too much until the carton of sherbet slipped and dropped to the table, rolling over the edge and hitting the ground.

At whch point she laughed, low but not soft, and pulled away.

There were worse things than that, too, Daniel thought, only a little disappointed. But--okay, she was still smiling, so he smiled, too, and go down off the table and held out his hand for her to climb down. She did, still holding her ice cream.

"You going to finish that?" he asked once she was on the ground.

"It would be a shame to let it go to waste." She ate a few more bites as they walked back to the car. Before they climbed in, she said, "Daniel? Can we do this again sometime?"

"Which part?" Daniel asked casually. Too casually, damn it.

Vala just smiled and got in the car.


End file.
